Customer Reviews

Boy Still Missing: A Novel (P.S.)

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

If you haven't read this book yet, you don't know what you're missing. Don't let it happen to you. If you're an avid book reader, like myself, you know you'll find maybe one book out of ten that really is special, and this book has got to be one of my favorite so far this year. It's beautifully written and a pleasure to read. John Searles is a real wordsmith. I was familiar with Searles writing from other publications, like Out, and other magazines, so I was very excited when he new debut novel was published. I wasn't disappointed. Here is a story that will keep you up at night till you're on the last page.

The story takes place in 1971. It tells the story of Dominick Pindle, a fifteen-year- old boy, who lives in Holedo, Massachusetts with his parents, who seem like a normal couple but really hold a lot of personal secrets. Dominick's father tends to drink a lot. Often Dominick and his mother must find him and drag him out of bars. His father has a mistress named Edie, who Dominick meets one night while searching for his father, and Dominick himself begins an affair with her. Dominick ends of loaning her lots of money that belongs to his mother, causing even more problems. Dominick finds out his mother was saving the money for an abortion of her own. She was having an affair, too, with Town Sheriff Roget. Dominick's mother not being able to afford a safe illegal abortion ends of bleeding to death in a motel room trying to terminate the pregnancy herself, with someone else's help. Who helps her, then deserts her is a real surprise. It turns out that Edie, the father's mistress, is pregnant, too, and the baby belongs to Dominick's father. There are so many plot twists in this story it's more than enough to fill two books. As the plot moves along very rapidly with more and more twists, we find Dominick with his new girlfriend, Jeanny, holed up in the same motel room his mother died in, with Edie's baby, who is Dominick's sister. There they are surrounded by the police, in a stand-off, that continues with more plot twists till the book comes to it's powerful conclusion. What a story!

Once in a while you find a new author that's really exciting and a powerful writer. John Searles is just that and more. I've got a strong feeling this will become a movie someday soon. I certainly look forward to reading and reviewing John's next book. Bravo!

This book was fantastic. I wasn't able to put it down until I finished it. I immediately cared about the characters and couldn't wait to find out what happened to them. The wording was highly descriptive without being verbose and the storyline was absolutely captivating. The unanticipated twists and turns kept me reading and reading. John Searles has done a great job with his first published novel! I would highly recommend this book to anyone who likes a great story.

John Searles in his debut book, Boy Still Missing, tells the coming of age tale of a young man which will haunt readers long after they close this book. From a line which ended the prologue, "I wish I could have stopped the most important person in my life from dying, " to the closing line, "And a part of me who will always be a boy still missing the childhood he left too quickly behind," readers will be glued to the story of Dominck Pindle.

Dominick Pindle may appear to be a normal and average 15 year old but his life is anything but normal. Many is the night that he accompanies his mother and her friend while they go looking for Dominick's father in local bars. But then one night trailing his father to a woman's home will set Dominick, his mother, father and this woman on a course which can only lead to tragedy. With a rather eccentric and unhappy mother who is hiding secrets to his philandering father and missing money, we sit on the edge of pour seats as Dominick's world is about to fall apart. And we as readers have a front row seat to how Dominck deals with the cards life handed him and a young woman who may very well save him.

Not in a very long time have I found a young male character as engaging and as sorrowful as Dominick Pindle. I am sure that some readers will compare him to other male teenage protagonists, perhaps even Holden Caulfield from Catcher in the Rye. But to me Dominck is a most unique young man whom we get to know and root for as we get closer to the end of this book.

I found this to be a well written book with wonderfully portrayed characters and a captivating theme. I do look forward to reading more books by this author in the future.

'If only I could have stopped the most important person in my life from dying . . . alone.' Thus speaks the protagonist of Boy Still Missing, a stunning debut novel by John Searles, the senior books editor at Cosmopolitan magazine. By becoming infatuated with Edie Kramer, his father's seductive mistress, Dominick Pindle, 15, initiates (continues?) a chain of events that ends in tragedy. The time is 1972. On his 16th birthday, Dominick is holed up in a Holedo, Mass., motel. Having stolen thousands of dollars and kidnapped a baby, he finds himself surrounded by police who demand his surrender. Strangely enough, this teenager is not a monster. As Dominick tells his tale, one begins to pull for him and hope against hope that he can find redemption. As I read this novel, two thoughts kept recurring: 'He is more sinned against than sinning' and 'We have met the enemy and he is us!' Who is responsible for the blame and shame that hovers around Dominick like a dark cloud? For centuries, philosophers have debated the problem of determinism vs. free will. Are we inextricably trapped in the inexorable causality of fate? Or are we, by our choices (and by random chance) forging our own character and, hence, our own destiny? Dominick Pindle finds himself in a tangled web woven by his own bad decisions and by the bad decisions of countless others--his contemporaries and his long-deceased ancestors. Critics have compared Boy Still Missing to J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye (1951). Like Holden Caulfield, Dominick Pindle experiences 'rites of passage' from adolescent to adulthood. Searles's coming-of-age tale, however, is superior to Salinger's, and Dominick Pindle has far more 'soul' or 'spirit' than does Holden Caulfield. Beautifully written, Boy Still Missing is replete with striking descriptions, analogies, and metaphors. The dialogue is superb. The best news is that Boy Still Missing is a page-turning, captivating story. Searles will make you angry and make you cheer. He will tease you with hope and taunt you with despair. He will make you laugh and make you cry. He will lift your spirit and break your heart. He will take you on a roller-coaster ride that you will not soon forget.

Boy Still Missing is a very extroadinary book. John Searles's imagry and how he made you feel you were Dominick Pindel was just amazing. I could honestly say I didn't put the book down until I was done reading. I actually felt I was there watching everything right in front of me. I can't wait until John Searles writes another book because Boy Still Missing, his first fiction novel, was just absolutely astounding. If you loved Catcher in the Rye, you definitely love this book.

I began reading "Boy Still Missing" on a Friday morning. By around 1 am early Saturday morning, I was hooked on the story line, and cared greatly for all of the characters. John Searles guides the reader through a whirlwind of excitement and suspense. The novel contains many surprises that even the greatest foreshadowing reader wouldn't have seen coming. While reading the book, I was quickly reminded of Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye". Is "Boy Still Missing" just as good? Nope, it's ALOT better! Do yourself a favor and pick up this great novel by a promissing new author, whose wit and storytelling abilities are rarely seen by most of today's authors.

I ordered this book b/c I saw that it had received almost 5 stars. I was quite unimpressed. A 15 year old boy has sex in the room where his mother died with a kidnapped one month old lying quietly nearby. A little ridiculous as is the rest of the book.

I'm not going to go over what the book is about as many have already done that. I just want to say that I am NOT friends with the author. Everyone who has given this book a bad review has said that if we give it a good review we must be friends with the author. THIS IS NOT TRUE. i am an avid reader and I found this book to be wonderful. I could not put it down. And this was his first book. I am now reading his second book and find it to be just as good. (Strange But True) I would recommend this book to anyone. Do yourself a favor and get the book from the library or buy it and find out for yourself. Do not go by the negative reviews you are reading here. It is a wonderful book.

I couldn't put this book down, and when it was, I was worrying about how Dominick would pull himself out of the tangled mess he had been spun into. Dominick, his mother, Leon and Jeanny were exceptionally wonderful characters, but the others were all slightly underdeveloped for believeability. The storyline was great and the writing style was easy to read and flowed well. I miss the characters already!

Dominick Pindle is a cocky but tender teenager from Holedo, Massachusetts who floats aimlessly through the early 1970s as a seemingly average kid. He quotes from The Price is Right and The Partridge Family. He sneaks his parents' booze and mixes horrific concoctions with his pals - "rum, vodka, whisky, vermouth, a bit of Dr Pepper, and a splash of OJ...the Holedo Hell-Raiser...promptly ... our guts out after chugging the whole thing from an old milk carton." He reminisces as he shuffles through the remarkable baseball card collection he "used to collect with his father."

But amid the tranquility, Dominick begins to learn startling facts about his family. His mother is involved with a local Police Officer. Dominick falls in lust with a much older woman only to discover his own father is also seeing her on the side. Gradually, clues to a mystery involving a half-brother he's never met unfold and help push the plot forward. Dominick also adds his own chapter to the weird family saga with a Catcher in the Rye-like trip to New York City where he finds himself running from the law with an attractive, self-confident girl - his own age this time.

Boy Still Missing is a terrific debut. At times erotic, often hopeful, but always fast-paced, there are enough mysteries to unravel here to fill several novels.